Hong Kong Cricket Association

The fate of this year's Hong Kong Sixes, left hanging without a title sponsor, depends on the government approving a request for HK$10 million from the Mega Events Fund (MEF), leading cricket official Mike Walsh warned yesterday.

Vivek Bakshi, the manager of the India team, brushed aside suggestions that the world's most financially powerful cricketing nation had sent a scratch side to the Karp Group Hong Kong Sixes, as organisers yesterday first scrambled to get a virtually unknown side to the ground on time - the first day's play at Kowloon Cricket Club - and then watched them being knocked out of the Cup competition.

Two leading Hong Kong women cricketers have been banned for a year after their "crazy" decision to withdraw from the squad competing at this week's Asian Cricket Council Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup in Guangzhou

Maurice Ling played one match for the Hong Kong national team in 1994 at the Tuanku Jaafar Cup. He didn't make any noteworthy contribution, but his mere presence highlighted the fact that the game had reached the Chinese community.

Former wicketkeeper Waqas Barkat has been handed the captaincy as Hong Kong look at kick starting their preparations for the ICC World Cup qualifiers in 2014 with a short tour to Papua New Guinea next month.

The Karp Group Hong Kong Sixes this year will feature fewer teams and be played over two days instead of three after organisers said it was 'too risky' to apply to the government's Mega Events Fund (MEF) for financial support.

Two key members of the new leadership-elect at the Hong Kong Cricket Association dropped a bombshell last night by withdrawing their candidacy, citing a possible conflict of interest with their jobs as chief investigators for the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The Hong Kong Sixes faces a possible leadership vacuum with the top two officials at the Hong Kong Cricket Association, president Shahzada Saleem and chairman Dinesh Tandon, stepping down at the end of this month. But both insisted yesterday the future of the popular tournament was secure and its continued success was guaranteed.

The government is looking closely at the Mega Events Fund. Among the questions is whether to continue with it and if so, how it can be streamlined to help the targeted communities - sports, arts and culture. To answer the first, the tourism-boosting initiative set up in 2009, and due to end in April next year, must go ahead.